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The Memphis City Council approved changes to city health insurance coverage in June and pension coverage in December.

But later amendments to both sets of benefits, the city’s debt service payments, a 2010 restructuring of city debt, and the city’s annual required pension contribution are all factors that will influence city finances for years, said city finance director Brian Collins.

A FedEx commercial that never made it past the storyboard stage portrayed company founder, chairman and CEO Fred Smith as a child filling out an order form in the back of a comic book for a batch of Sea-Monkeys, sending it off and waiting for the delivery.

A joint session of the Tennessee House and Senate has approved new terms for two of the state's constitutional officers.

Comptroller Justin Wilson and Treasurer David Lillard were elected Wednesday to their fourth two-year terms. Wilson, Lillard and Secretary of State Tre Hargett were each first elected in 2009 after Republicans gained control of the Legislature.

A joint session of the Tennessee House and Senate has approved new terms for two of the state's constitutional officers.

Comptroller Justin Wilson and Treasurer David Lillard were elected Wednesday to their fourth two-year terms. Wilson, Lillard and Secretary of State Tre Hargett were each first elected in 2009 after Republicans gained control of the Legislature.

Tennessee's secretary of state, comptroller and treasurer are abandoning an effort to use one communications officer to speak on all three constitutional officers' behalf.

Treasurer David Lillard announced Friday he has hired Shelli King, a former marketing consultant at WTVF-TV in Nashville, to be his chief spokeswoman. Comptroller Justin Wilson previously hired former WZTV-TV reporter John Dunn to be his spokesman.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam was in New York City last week to talk with the major bond rating agencies.

Normally such trips come when a local or state government is about to issue new debt and wants a credit rating from the agencies. In this case, the Thursday, Sept. 25, visit was not for that. It was more of a status report on the state’s financial condition.

KNOXVILLE – It doesn’t get much easier for the University of Tennessee’s football team.

The Sept. 20 open date has come and gone. UT’s coaches and players had ample time to digest and dissect details of the 34-10 loss to No. 4-ranked Oklahoma on Sept. 13 and a week to prepare for a challenge just as formidable.

The South Carolina defense still has improvement to make, but in beating Georgia 38-35 last Saturday the Gamecocks made a fourth-quarter goal-line stand and reasserted their presence in the SEC East Division.

The leaders of the Memphis police and fire unions say they will sue the city over changes in employee health insurance approved this month and are prepared to add pension changes to the litigation if the council approves those changes next month.

The city’s operating and capital budgets are just about set for the new fiscal year next month. Hard decisions made about health insurance for city employees and retirees Tuesday, June 17, are unlikely to be revisited by the Memphis City Council.

The Tuesday, March 4, discussion Memphis City Council members had with Tennessee Comptroller Justin Wilson, Tennessee Treasurer David Lillard and consultants from four actuarial firms centered on the city’s pension liability.

Memphis City Council members cleared much of their committee calendar Tuesday, Feb. 4, to talk for four hours about specifics of the city’s pension fund liability crisis.

The discussion with Tennessee Comptroller Justin Wilson, Tennessee Treasurer David Lillard and consultants from four actuarial firms was aimed at trying to define the specifics of the problem, see if there is agreement on some of the numbers and better explain the differences.

Memphis City Council members cleared much of their committee calendar Tuesday, Feb. 4, to talk for four hours about specifics of the city’s pension fund liability crisis.

The discussion with Tennessee Comptroller Justin Wilson, Tennessee Treasurer David Lillard and consultants from four actuarial firms was aimed at trying to define the specifics of the problem, see if there is agreement on some of the numbers and better explain the differences.

The road to a specific solution to the city’s unsustainable pension liability and employee benefits begins Tuesday, March 4, in detailed, technical and complex financial discussions at City Hall that will dominate the committee schedule of the Memphis City Council.

The Memphis City Council approved hiring its own actuary firm Tuesday, Feb. 18, to review the city’s financial state, namely city government’s unfunded pension liability. The council voted to hire Segal Consulting of Atlanta to advise it as the council prepared for a March 4 committee session in which it will meet with the administration’s actuary and others on the unsustainable trajectory the pension fund is on.

The Memphis City Council approved hiring its own actuary firm Tuesday, Feb. 18, to review the city’s financial state, namely city government’s unfunded pension liability. The council voted to hire Segal Consulting of Atlanta to advise it as the council prepared for a March 4 committee session in which it will meet with the administration’s actuary and others on the unsustainable trajectory the pension fund is on.

Memphis City Council members heard Tuesday, Feb. 18, that the administration of Memphis Mayor A C Wharton Jr. wants to move some city government offices into the Soulsville Town Center in South Memphis and is weighing whether to renovate or tear down and build anew on the site of the Southbrook Mall in Whitehaven.

MEMPHIS (AP) – The FBI has told Shelby County Election Administrator Richard Holden it wants to speak with him and six other election workers about how they complete their job responsibilities, an official said Thursday.

There is rarely a good answer to the question “How much?” in politics.

With issues including the unfunded pension liability, overall debt, and revenue estimates and their validity, City Hall’s overall money problem begins but hardly ends with the question. It won’t be that simple.

Standard & Poor’s, one of the big three bond-rating agencies, has assigned a AA rating to the city’s general obligation bonds and the revenue bonds proposed for use in a city purchase of AutoZone Park, and has given the city’s financial health a “stable” outlook on both fronts.

Tracy Lindow has rejoined The Centre Group human resources firm as a senior consultant following several years in Germany. As a senior consultant, Lindow will help organizations improve their bottom line through human asset development by leveraging compensations strategies, executive search, employee attitude research and leadership skills development.

Memphis Mayor A C Wharton Jr. will take a five-year plan for meeting the city’s $709 million unfunded pension liability Tuesday, Dec. 17, to Memphis City Council members during their executive session.

December was already going to be a busy month at City Hall for the administration of Memphis Mayor A C Wharton Jr.

He would be bringing a plan to provide $15 million in city financing for the $180 million Crosstown revitalization project and rolling out its fix to address the Tennessee Comptroller’s vocal concerns about the city’s unfunded pension liability.

The Christmas tree in the plaza of AutoZone Park is more than a reminder of the holiday season.

The tree serves as a reminder for the tight timeframe that awaits a proposal for a city government purchase of the baseball park as the St. Louis Cardinals baseball franchise buys the Memphis Redbirds ball club, the Cardinals AAA minor league affiliate.

If anyone at City Hall has any illusions that the state of Tennessee is no longer concerned about city government’s unfunded pension liability, Tennessee Comptroller Justin P. Wilson cleared up that point with a letter sent to Memphis Mayor A C Wharton Jr. this month and released Tuesday, Oct. 15.

If anyone at City Hall has any illusions that the state of Tennessee is no longer concerned about city government’s unfunded pension liability, Tennessee Comptroller Justin P. Wilson cleared up that point earlier this month with a letter to Memphis Mayor A C Wharton Jr. that was released Tuesday, Oct. 15.

Memphis City Council members this week take up $375 million in refunding bonds and general obligation bonds, and discuss a land swap with Church of the River for access to a boardwalk on the Harahan Bridge across the Mississippi River.

The $180 million plan to bring the former Sears Crosstown building back to life with a mix of residential, commercial and retail tenants faces a critical hurdle Thursday, Oct. 10, as the Center City Revenue Finance Corp. considers a 15- or 20-year payment-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOT) agreement for the project.

The city’s looming pension liability crisis and the proposed solution to it intersected Tuesday, Oct. 1, with a plan to overhaul city sanitation services and, in the process, provide a pension supplement to sanitation workers.

Concerns about the long-term financial health of Memphis city government that subsided in June go back to the front political burner at City Hall this week.

The administration of Memphis Mayor A C Wharton Jr. has a report on the city’s pension plan from PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP of Atlanta that concludes the city’s pension plan for city employees is unsustainable and “has continued to deteriorate.”

At the overtime sudden death end of the local budget season, if you live in Memphis you leave with a combined $7.78 cent tax rate – city of Memphis and county property tax rates – the highest property tax rate in the state of Tennessee.

Every version of a city budget the Memphis City Council and Mayor A C Wharton Jr. considered in June included a plan to lose 300 city employees through attrition for long-term savings toward meeting rising future debt obligations.

Call it a “budget resolution.” A week after the Memphis City Council set the city’s operating budget, capital budget and a property tax rate of $3.40, council members and Memphis Mayor A C Wharton Jr. resolved Tuesday, July 2, to continue making changes in City Hall’s financial practices.

Some Memphis City Council members say they are prepared for a long day Tuesday, June 18, at City Hall as they continue down the arduous path to a tax rate and budget for the coming fiscal year.

“Let’s just be ready to spend the night,” said council member Harold Collins last week. He commented as council-mediated discussions between the administration of Memphis Mayor A C Wharton Jr. and municipal union leaders on possible cuts in employee benefits got nowhere quickly and ended after less than an hour.

The Memphis City Council is caught between hints of a state takeover of city finances and the possibility of a lawsuit by most, if not all, of the city’s municipal labor unions in a fiscal crisis that is also evolving into a significant labor dispute.

An ad hoc committee of Memphis City Council members trying to find common ground between the administration of Memphis Mayor A C Wharton Jr. and the city’s municipal labor unions met for less than an hour Wednesday, June 12, before calling it a day.

For the last three years or so the game at City Hall has been to move money around from one pocket to another to try to make projects happen in the toughest economic downturn since the Great Depression.

Memphis City Council members have final votes on their agenda Tuesday, June 6, on an operating budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1 in addition to setting a city property tax rate.

But before the council meets at 3:30 p.m. at City Hall, 125 N. Main St., the group’s budget committee will hear from Memphis Mayor A C Wharton Jr. and his administration one more time on possible changes to the budget and the tax rate.

This wasn’t what the Memphis City Council had in mind when its budget committee set Thursday, May 30, as its wrap-up session on the city budget.

Such sessions are usually the time when the budget committee takes final votes on whether it agrees with parts of the administration’s budget proposal and council members begin to roll out their own proposals and substitutions.

When the administration of Memphis Mayor A C Wharton Jr. went to the state earlier this year for approval of a $112.4 million refunding bonds issuance, it was the second time in four years City Hall had used a debt tactic known as “scoop and toss.”

An April report from the Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury critical of city finances threw the budget season at City Hall into remake mode Tuesday, May 21.

The bottom line for the budget is a remediation plan that will increase the city’s long term debt, force the city to use its reserves, and take reserves below the 10 percent level considered key with bond-rating agencies.

About a year after the Tennessee legislature set new district lines for itself and the state’s nine members of Congress, it is about to set the district lines for civil and criminal trial court judges at the state level.

GOD’S SAUSAGE. (When you see this column, it’s the 40 Days of Waffle Shop again, so strike while the iron is hot.)

“You might just be a copywriter,” Brick Muller said, staring down at the piece of paper I’d just handed him. On it was an ad idea I’d just pounded out on the 1948 Royal typewriter he was paying me to use as a copywriter. The fact that this was his first recognition that I might be one was gratifying since I’d already been there for nine months.

A member of the Tennessee Senate Judiciary Committee says an audit of the Board of Probation and Parole casts doubt on the effectiveness of parolee supervision.

A performance audit by the state comptroller’s office showed at least 82 people parole officers said they checked on between January 2011 and May 2012 were, in fact, dead. One of them died more than 19 years ago.

The election driven by ballot questions and one-time-only races looks to become an election that goes into overtime as well.

Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett formally asked State Comptroller Justin Wilson Friday, July 27, to audit the administration of the Shelby County Election Commission and investigate election procedures and returns.

The week that two solar farms located in Haywood County and Memphis were dedicated, a bill that would increase property taxes on owners of solar production facilities like the two arrays was undergoing more changes in Nashville and encountering increased opposition from the state’s solar industry.

GOD’S SAUSAGE. “You might just be a copywriter,” Brick Muller said, staring down at the piece of paper I’d just handed him. On it was an ad idea I’d just pounded out on the 1948 Royal typewriter he was paying me to use as a copywriter. The fact that this was his first recognition that I might be one was gratifying since I’d already been there for nine months.

Tennessee’s financial ledger is in good shape. The current state budget is balanced. For the first five months of the current budget year, general fund collections have outpaced projections by about $188 million.

NASHVILLE (AP) – State Comptroller Justin Wilson says Tennessee's school funding formula is fraught with complexity and a lack of transparency that could lead to either inadvertent or intentional errors in distributing state money.

The next phase of University of Memphis football officially began Thursday, Dec. 8. That’s when 35-year-old Justin Fuente, co-offensive coordinator at Texas Christian University, told media and fans gathered at an on-campus press conference, “This is going to be Memphis’ team. … I don’t care what school you went to, you live in the city, I want this to be your team.”

The next phase of University of Memphis football officially began Thursday, Dec. 8.

That’s when 35-year-old Justin Fuente, co-offensive coordinator at Texas Christian University, told media and fans gathered at an on-campus press conference, “This is going to be Memphis’ team. … I don’t care what school you went to, you live in the city, I want this to be your team.”

NASHVILLE (AP) – The state of Tennessee plans to sell an estimated $584 million worth of bonds this week, the largest sale in the state's history.

The sale Tuesday through Thursday will use some of the proceeds to pay for new capital projects and infrastructure. These include economic development grants for Volkswagen in Chattanooga, Wacker Chemie in Bradley County, Hemlock Semiconductor in Clarksville and Electrolux in Memphis.

NASHVILLE (AP) – More money should be coming into the state as a result of an improving economy, but high gas prices that are eating up people's disposable income are also affecting Tennessee's revenue projections, the State Funding Board said Friday.

NASHVILLE (AP) – The State Funding Board has projected that Tennessee's general fund revenues could be up to $162 million more than expected this budget year.

The panel on Wednesday set official projections for the remainder of the current spending year and the one beginning July 1. Gov. Bill Haslam and lawmakers use the projections to plan the state's spending plan.

NASHVILLE (AP) – A former state lawmaker who was a vocal critic of Tennessee's laws on appointing judges has been named an administrative law judge.

The Chattanooga Times Free Press reports for Tuesday's editions that Republican Sen. Dewayne Bunch of Cleveland has been appointed an administrative law judge by Secretary of State Tre Hargett, a fellow former state lawmaker.

NASHVILLE (AP) – Tennessee's latest revenue figures released Wednesday show monthly sales tax collections grew at their highest rate since April 2007 and that the state's general fund exceeded projections by $46 million through the first quarter of the budget year.

2009 was a year without a script – and plenty of improvising on the political stage.

It was supposed to be an off-election year except in Arlington and Lakeland.

2008 ended with voters in the city and county approving a series of changes to the charters of Memphis and Shelby County governments. Those changes were supposed to set a new direction for both entities, kicking into high gear in 2010 and ultimately culminating two years later.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - The Tennessee State Funding Board on Friday agreed to a range of revenue estimates that dips below the predictions of economists previously consulted by the panel.

The four board members voted to set the general fund growth rate at between 1.8 percent and 2.3 percent for the budget year beginning July 1. Five economists earlier this week forecast a growth rate of between 1.99 percent and 3.5 percent.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – A new report shows the effectiveness of Tennessee’s pre-kindergarten program diminishes after the second grade, but supporters say it still provides a valuable foundation that will help at-risk children succeed.

Justin Timberlake might be best known for hit records, dance moves and sold-out concerts, but the 28-year-old entertainer extraordinaire is much more than a singer/dancer/performer. The award-winning, chart-topping Timberlake – or, simply, JT – has become an institution, a brand name that transcends his showbiz persona and carries as much cachet as any living celebrity.

The Tennessee Department of Education has recovered more than $425,000 from a vendor that overbilled for services and then alerted the department to the problem.

A special investigation by the state comptroller found Edvantia Inc. overbilled for administering the Exemplary Educators program grant contracts. The program assigns teachers and administrators to schools in need.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - The Tennessee comptroller on Friday recommended preventing smaller cities and counties from entering into complex bond deals because they are too risky.

Some cities, counties and utility districts in Tennessee are struggling under derivative bonding arrangements that sent their interest payments skyrocketing and suddenly reduced how much time they have to pay off their debts.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Two Republican candidates for Tennessee constitutional offices have been linked to a proposal for the state to benefit from taking out life insurance policies on unwitting retired state employees.

Tennessee state Rep. Kent Williams is considering breaking ranks with his fellow Republicans to vote to hold on to the state’s Democratic constitutional officers.

95. Archived Article: Standout (mack) - Friday, August 04, 2000 By SUZANNE THOMPSON Cooking from the heart By SUZANNE THOMPSON The Daily News The last thing Bonnie Mack needs is someone looking over his shoulder while hes in the kitchen. So last year, when President Clinton visited Blues City Cafe, where Mack is...

96. Archived Article: Briefs - Friday, January 03, 1997 A guide to the states environmental permitting process is now available from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation A guide to the states environmental permitting process is now available from the Tennessee Department of Environmen...

97. Archived Article: Back2 - Thursday, June 27, 1996 Tennessee emissions down by 32 million pounds Tennessee emissions down by 32 million pounds Tennessee has made a 32 million pound reduction this year in the release of more than 600 chemicals included on the Toxic Release Inventory, Justin P. Wilson...